[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 24 Final2016/03/26,
Throughout all his trials and tribulations, Yeong-sil has remained a surprisingly good sport. There's good reason for this. As bad as jail might be, Yeong-sil at least has his sketchbook, which gives him a chance to think over matters of science. That's always good for a nice matter of calm, even if this time, Yeong-sil's friends can't help him. There's just disgrace and corporal punishment, while Yeong-sil sulks and starts to hate the world,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 232016/03/20,
Yeong-sil struggles with another of the usual engineering problems for his current clock design as he works on a deadline. In an ideal world, this is all Yeong-sil would have to worry about. But in "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama", the scientist ends up being forced to think in terms of geopolitical questions. This time around, after deciding that they find Yeong-sil's super diorama clock to be more cool than morally offensive, the Chinese attempt to poach him as their own scientist,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 222016/03/19,
Once again, Yeong-sil lounges around just in the peripheral issue of major political questions, this time out on the frontier. Nothing immediately important happens. There ends up being a timeskip following a somewhat anticlimactic death scare for King Sejong, leading me to believe that "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" focuses on certain historical incidents more out of obligation than because of actual relevancy,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 212016/03/13,
I don't really feel that bad for Hee-ji considering how often he manages to get embroiled in life-or-death situations, and then proceeds to enravel all the nearby characters in those same crises. Aside from how generally dangerous Hee-ji is as a friend, he has this bad habit of sucking the oxygen out of the room with his own mostly irrelevant storylines. There's a great montage here that's pretty much a greatest hits collection of Hee-ji either being a jerk or being interrupted by a conspiracy whenever he tries to act a little more senxible for a change,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 202016/03/12,
Hee-ji struggles with whether to honor his love for science or his love of not being threatened with murder by his political allies. It's taken awhile, but I think I'm finally appreciating Hee-ji as a sort of tragic character who debates which side is the right side for the sake of progress. I wonder whether the historical Hee-ji actually had to deal with problems anything like this, but whatever. I'm partially relieved if only to learn that for the most part the various characters in "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" are in fact based on real people, what with the brief credits scene,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 192016/03/06,
Eight months later, Yeong-sil is making decent progress on his scientific endeavors. Hee-ji, though, he just skulks at home having flashbacks of past fire-related incidents, grumbling about the obvious superiority of Yeong-sil and, I kid you not, projecting his weird fixation issues on a makeshift Joseon-era mannequin. It bears repeating. In terms of personality and inner conflict, Hee-ji is the real main character of "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama". Hee-ji is the one always making difficult decisions while Yeong-sil just tries to think of a better way to build a clock,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 182016/03/05,
Hee-ji suffers from his usual character conflict here. Yeong-sil is such a genius, Hee-ji feels eternally incompetent, so Hee-ji must struggle between his love of science and his desire to burn things. Again with the fire! Forget about clocks, King Sejong really needs to do something about public services. One of these days someone is going to try to burn something important, and at that point, he's going to wish there was a fire brigade to deal with the problem,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 172016/02/28,
While this episode certainly has its share of ominous brooding when it comes to authority figures of dubious reputation, fortunately, for the most part no one actually tries to cash in on the threats. Yeong-sil presents a simple, easily understood alternate scientific theory, and from there it's just a matter of put up or shut up. Good clock design can only get a man so far when the amount of possible elaboration is such that a near infinite variety of models is possible,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 162016/02/27,
Hee-ji belatedly feels some guilt here about jealously trying to use violence to drive Yeong-sil out of the field of science. It's lucky Hee-ji didn't go all the way, even if he was technically operating at the behest of a conspiracy. I continue to find the scientific conspiracies the most baffling part of "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama". They don't even have hired goons or anything, the bad guys are perfectly fine with beating people up in broad daylight while still wearing their fancy clothes. Eggheads have never been so scary,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 152016/02/21,
Now that Yeong-sil is apparently dead, all anyone can seem to talk about is what a great smart guy he was. Which is awkward, considering that the principal men involved in the assassination attempt on the poor scientist still have their government positions, and just can't seem to escape the fact that even in death Yeong-sil is way smarter than they are. "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" has the kind of villains who seem pathetic even when they win, because their competence begins and ends with cloak and dagger conspiracies,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 142016/02/20,
This episode opens up with Yeong-sil and his science buddies admiring the stars and pondering over the mysteries of the universe as Jang Yeong-sil's scientific bagpipe music plays in the background. It's a capstone to a whirlwind of successful research, and I really hate these scenes because they mostly just remind me of the story that "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" could be telling, except that now it's time for the requisite unnecessary violence on the part of science-hating extremists,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 132016/02/14,
A major scene in the early part of this episode does a good job explaining the contradictions of "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" as a whole. We start out with Yeong-sil working, idly wondering about the political situation but mostly just puzzled as to why his current astronomical calculations aren't working. Then a bunch of aristocratic bullies show up and force a physical confrontation. Wrestling moves are involved. At long last Yeong-sil inadvertently comes up with a breakthrough and rushes back to inform his team,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 122016/02/13,
Yeong-sil has learned a valuable lesson from the constant apparently unnecessary attempts on his life. While it's great that Yeong-sil has managed to gain an official scientific position within the Joseon, nobody likes him. The other scientists don't really have a good reason for doing so, but that's besides the point. Pecking orders aren't based on logic. Up until now science has been a means of social advancement in Korea, and King Sejong can't change that overnight,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 112016/02/06,
After a large scale and mostly unnecessary swordfight the Chinese portion of "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" concludes, as usual leaving me asking the wrong kind of questions. Is anybody else noticing the irony here? Song Il-gook is in an action-heavy drama, as a guy who logically does not know how to fight and spends most his time in the action sequences chronically dodging hits? When even the token woman picks up a sword and starts hacking away I have to wonder whether "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" would make more sense if it just ignored logic entirely and made Yeong-sil a kung fu scientist. For all we know, he might have been one,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 102016/01/31,
Hee-ji (played by Lee Ji-hoon) is the actual main character of "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" at the moment, on account of the fact that he's the only Korean character who actually has any idea what's going on in the Chinese portion of the story. I feel like I'm constantly repeating myself on this point but...why exactly is Yeong-sil the main character when he doesn't know what's going on, no one wants to tell him what's going on, and it doesn't even seem to matter whether or not he knows what's going on?,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 92016/01/30,
Having finally managed to escape the cutthroat environment of Korean politics, so that he can study astronomy in China, Yeong-sil at long last manages to arrive in China to discover that...there are also violent bureaocratic elements at play in Chinese astronomy. And much as was the case in Korea, Yeong-sil has only the faintest awareness of what's going on. He just expresses surprise and curiousity regarding a few novel scientific devices, and proceeds to stumble clumsily into more random death plots and sword fights,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 82016/01/24,
The extended opening of this episode is simply a direct continuation of the cliffhanger from last time. Yeong-sil is stuck in a noose, reliant entirely on the whims of the weather to confirm whether or not his heretical scientific theory is true and thus, can release Yeong-sil from the risk of death. For all of King Taejong's established authoritatiran attitude I'm still at a bit of a loss as to why he takes these issues to such a ridiculous extreme. It's almost like King Taejong takes issues of bad science personally,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 72016/01/23,
I'm increasingly getting the sense that "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" is less about the actual titular scientist and more about the political struggles that were necessary for King Sejong to manage the important reforms that marked his reign. It's clear that several of the events we see in major focus were actual real historical watermarks in King Sejong's early career (he's still not actually King yet). Although this is mostly a hypothesis on my part since once again Jeong-sil has very little screentime in his own story compared to other characters who aren't very good at staying alive in difficult historical times,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 52016/01/16,
After a weird opening setpiece where Yeong-sil's personal problems and the greater political situation randomly come into violent agreement, we get a few interesting scenes of Yeong-sil trying to make a go of life with palace scientists. Yeong-sil ends up making enemies by stupidly expressing his opinion and then backing it up with factual evidence. That's a really big problem in a scientific infrastructure where qualifications are considered more relevant than facts,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 42016/01/10,
Yeong-sil continues to struggle with authority this episode, as the climax involves him getting into a violent altercation with an official and eventually using the power of science to spring an elaborate trap. As good as Song Il-gook is at action scenes, I can't help but find it a tad absurd how "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" is apparently taking the position that Yeong-sil could have or should have used his scientific abilities to win fights. That much sounds like a running sketch idea for a late night comedy program,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 32016/01/09,
Like most historical persons from the early Joseon period, we don't actually know very much about the life of the real Jang Yeong-sil- so a lot of the story ends up having to be completely made up. I didn't mind this so much in the first two episodes of "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama", since by and large these were just kid Yeong-sil having adventures with science. And there's elements of that here too, as the production team gets into fifteen century clocks. Suffice to say, accurate timekeeping was much more difficult back before everything was digitized,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 22016/01/03,
As much as Yeong-sil loves science one fact is unassailable- his cultural background is unimpressive. So while other better pedigreed kids in the family study all day, Yeong-sil has to do hard labor and wait until nighttime to do science, which is fortunate because this episode Yeong-sil decides to learn everything he can about the moon. In this case "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" takes an unusual approach to the scientific method by using it to explain wrong science- specifically, geocentrism,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" Episode 12016/01/02,
Yeong-sil (played by Song Il-gook) first appears as a decrepit old man moving across a vast field for one purpose- to view an eclipse. While the action soon moves into flashback mode eclipses remain an important plot point. While technically irrelevant to daily life, knowing when and how an eclipse will happen is a sure sign of scientific advancement. Under New Joseon, currently led by King Taejong (played by Kim Young-cheol), science is a pretty big deal,...More

[HanCinema's Film Review] "Going by the Book"2014/09/27,
Caper movies are a special type of good mainstream fun. They are a demanding type, as the plans devised and/or thwarted and the sequence of events leading to the ending need to be both exciting and pretty hole-free. When done right, it is magic. Characters and actors also play a very important part in them, since they carry the weight of one specific situation and a much tighter focus. 'Going by the Book' is an interesting take on a heist film, but its unique idea stills fits that description,...More

[HanCinema's Film News] New Korean Films Inbound…2014/08/16, K-Films Coming Soon:
★★★★ "Tunnel 3D": The opening of a new resort turns into a nightmarish experience for a group of friends who find themselves trapped in a nearby coalmine. (08/20)
★★★★ "Welcome": An old romance is rekindled amidst personal tragedy as two old friends rediscover and support each other through their losses. (08/21)
★★★★ "The King of Jokgu": A college clown gains fame when his jokgu (a cross between volleyball and soccer) skills are revealed. The university then holds a jokgu competition and he and his team put it all on the line. (08/21)
★★ "The Story of Ong-nyeo": Joseon's sexiest woman gets driven into the mountains where she awaits her perfect match to find her.
★★★★ "The Road Called Life": An omnibus film containing various short stories from Korea's leading modern literature writers Kim Yu-jong, Lee Hyo-seok and Hyun Jin-geon. (08/21)
★★★★★ "My Ordinary Love Story": A young woman finds hope through a serendipitous encounter, but is this 'seventh' man everything he appears to be? (08/21),...More

Fusion horror2014/06/02, Source,
The breaking down of genre is also influencing horror flicks. The answer to the horror crisis is crossing over, which is beyond making the audience scared and surprised.
- Mellow and horror "Mourning Grave""Mourning Grave", which is being released next month, has a little bit of youthful romance in it. In-soo is a boy who has the gift of being able to see ghosts but has left his hometown after seeing his dead friend. He struggles with a ghost girl to fight against the 'masked ghost' that is terrorizing the school,...More

[HanCinema's Film Review] "Total Messed Family"2014/03/22,
Won-man (played by Son Byeong-ho) makes a living filing frivolous lawsuits and bullying people into paying him to go away. He is hated by, well, pretty much everybody, especially his son Cheon-bong (played by Kim Min-gi), who straight up fled the household to avoid dealing with Won-man's abuse. But the time is reckoning at hand- having exhausted the patience of all his non-relatives, Cheon-bong returns home with his hugely pregnant girlfriend. By the way, they still have vigorous loud sex every night.
This is all very much to the consternation of Se-joo (played by Han Bo-bae), the daughter of Won-man and younger sister of Cheon-bong,...More

[HanCinema's Film Review] "Papa - Movie"2012/07/01, Film: "Papa - Movie"
Director:Han Ji-seung ("Venus and Mars" and "Alone in Love")
Stars: Park Yong-woo, Ko Ah-ra and Son Byeong-hoReview Score: 6/10
Also try: "Hello Ghost"
I flagged this film as soon as I saw the film poster for it a few weeks before its release in Korea. It looked like such an unusual, as well as a highly unlikely film, that bravely nose dives into the, sometimes sticky, issue of multiculturalism in Korean culture. Han Ji-seung's efforts here, as something relatively new and rather bold, unfortunately did not translate into a remarkable performance at the local box office. The film received very little attention, and generally slipped under the radar in terms of admissions. A shame really, because although it's all a little to neat and tidy for my liking, the film itself offers a unique counter-narrative to mainstream Korean cinema as a light-hearted comedy that finds an uncanny middle ground between the Korean comedy genre films we all know and love, and this films irregular inclusion of suburban American culture,...More

[HanCinema's Film Review] Korean Weekend Box Office (2011.04.22-2011.04.24)2011/04/25, Korean Weekend Box Office (2011.04.22~2011.04.24)
Screaming into number one is the high octane and adrenaline packed "Fast Five". Staring the cool Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Paul Walker, Ludacris and a host of others in thrill ride that surely won't disappoint action junkies. Justin Lin directs this lasted film in the "Fast and the Furious" series with 396,071 moviegoers rushing into Korean cinemas for it.,...More

Moon Geun-young says "trying to be less friendly"2010/07/21, Source,
Korean actress Moon Geun-young and actor Eom Gi-joon [10Asia/Chae Ki-won]
The second project of the series of plays produced by talent agency Namoo Actors and Aga Entertainment will feature Moon Geun-young and Eom Gi-joon. The theatrical play "Closer" was written by Patrick Marber and became a huge movie hit in 2004 with Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. The play premiered in Korea in 2005 with a cast of Nam Seong-jin, Park Hee-soon, Kim Yeo-jin, Son Byeong-ho and Yoon Ji-hye. It was performed eight times on stage and known as the main repertoire of Aga Entertainment, receiving a lot of love from the public. Unlike other works where it 'romanticizes' love, "Closer" points out the cynicism and cold aspects of it. The play reflects on how "with their own laws of love everyone breaks apart" and the selfishness and coldness of four modern urbanites. Compared to previous productions of "Closer" that had been adapted to fit the Korean sentiments, the 2010 version will be close to the original play with the same inclination and feeling to the London show. Below are the excerpts from the press conference with the cast and director of the Korean adaptation of the play "Closer",...More

The formula for "buddy movies" is quite familiar here: Two good-looking actors who at first don't get along come together as they tackle some kind of problem or project. But whatever the problems, you can be sure of a "feel good" ending that ties things up.

Wild Beasts Lurk in the Hearts of Men2006/01/05, Source, Wolves in the wild don't roar in anger like lions do. But if they are caged, they will ram themselves against the bars again and again until they are bloody. Confinement reveals a beast's true nature.

'Long and Winding Road' portrays mother's love2005/04/09, Source, Every Korean has a strong emotional connection with the word, "eomma" (mother). In most cases, Korean mothers have gone through tough times, including war and poverty, that make it hard to navigate life itself.

But mothers never give up, especially when it comes to things related to their childre,...More

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